You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Gary M Washburn

Comments

You're one of those who believe truth is what endures some sort of test? Worth is what does not endure, and worth is truer than truth. Time, of which ...
November 11, 2020 at 18:24
Probably the most poignant moment in all of Plato is when Socrates' friend, Phaedo, despairs of the argument. Socrates warns of becoming 'logophobes'....
November 11, 2020 at 13:00
As to the ACA (which covers reproductive rights). What if Congress passed a law defining what punishment apply to convicted criminals, and superseding...
November 10, 2020 at 19:57
The argument that clinched Roe vs Wade was the description of protected rights as covering those "born". About all I can offer is a cultural value est...
November 10, 2020 at 19:44
This is not a fight over babies. It is a fight over terms. Thirty years ago I struggled with this problem, the origin of shared terms and rational for...
November 10, 2020 at 13:56
I'll say it just once more, the life of the unborn is irrelevant. The mother's body is hers, and hers alone. And the law has an absolute duty to promo...
November 09, 2020 at 18:54
There is a case still steaming in the record about a charity hospital waived the requirement to provide reproductive coverage on non-member employees....
November 08, 2020 at 15:14
In: Platonism  — view comment
https://iep.utm.edu/sqr-opp/ The square of opposition is a chart that was introduced within classical (categorical) logic to represent the logical rel...
November 08, 2020 at 15:05
In: Platonism  — view comment
Why are you so afraid of your own mind??? It's like you have to hold onto the rail for fear of falling off of reality. Plato's is a world of human cha...
November 07, 2020 at 22:33
The wording of the establishment clause is clearly meant to prohibit establishing churches as sovereign over anyone, though its supporters may have be...
November 07, 2020 at 22:32
Let me put that more strongly. Is a church a separate sovereign with sovereignty rights over its membership and employees the Constitution not only pr...
November 07, 2020 at 21:00
Picked up the wrong URL, Try again: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/22/1986768/-10-Tragic-Consequences-of-Restrictive-Abortion-Laws Is the "f...
November 07, 2020 at 20:51
Apparently you are able to perceive the perceptions of others. Talk about a nice trick! Thing is, it is hard to reconcile that ability with your "indi...
November 07, 2020 at 14:16
In: Platonism  — view comment
Did a Wiki for Theech, nothing.
November 07, 2020 at 13:54
The context of what you regard as certain fact, however justifiably, is a lexicon of terms, including formal terms, that are not factually understood....
November 06, 2020 at 10:10
In: Platonism  — view comment
You're rubber, I suppose? What gives anti-Plato folks like you the this idea he was a mystic?? Aristotle himself admits he didn't have a clue what Pla...
November 05, 2020 at 17:51
PS, the full explanation took me about three thousand pages to get on paper. Up for a read?
November 05, 2020 at 17:37
Do you really suppose I didn't catch your meaning? You think you've got me up a stump. But it's what numbers don't count that engenders truth among us...
November 05, 2020 at 17:36
You know how many beans make five, do you? Maybe, like with Baldric, it's a very small casserole? Why is it we expend so much effort to convince each ...
November 05, 2020 at 10:44
In: Platonism  — view comment
Please stop referencing extraneous sources. Table stakes please! But, if I must, please read 'The Analyst', by George Berkeley. As a mathematical term...
November 05, 2020 at 10:43
In: Platonism  — view comment
Must everything be black or white with you? I never said logic is a complete failure, only that it assumes a hermeticity not supported by its argument...
November 04, 2020 at 18:58
Factional support does not have to be standing immediately behind you, ask anyone ever subjected to sexism or racism. By the way, women are much more ...
November 04, 2020 at 18:38
A belief is much more than a personal opinion if there is convention backing it up. Convention can never prevail so broadly it is beyond question. And...
November 04, 2020 at 15:17
In: Platonism  — view comment
Well, I don't see the point in refuting all this. It just appeared as I posted the above. My answer to the quoted passage here is that you're lack of ...
November 04, 2020 at 15:15
In: Platonism  — view comment
Speaking English, eking is just getting by. This discussion is eking. Making stuff up and calling it Platonic doesn't make it so. Nowhere does Plato r...
November 04, 2020 at 13:56
In: Platonism  — view comment
Truth is not an aspiration, however inspiring that aspiration is to you!
November 03, 2020 at 13:44
In: Platonism  — view comment
Socrates doesn't say he knows nothing, he says he knows that he knows nothing. He is not unsure. Does being unsure have voice? Or does only knowing ha...
November 03, 2020 at 13:27
Another thing, we do not revert from nature to morality because religious law tells us what is moral, we suppress our natural impulses because we are ...
November 02, 2020 at 13:44
The issue of freedom vs natural law is a red-herring. It came up because the Catholic church uses natural law to argue their way from conception to vi...
November 02, 2020 at 13:24
Addendum, Do I detect a Hobbesean view? That we are savages? That myth was created to rationalize the most atrocious oppression and dispossession. It ...
November 01, 2020 at 23:24
I think the point moot because there is a necessary distinction between what is deemed morality (mostly erroneously!) and law. For instance, how would...
November 01, 2020 at 23:04
That's just lame! How many single fathers are there? I think you'll find the numbers are a bit lop-sided on that one! And no one is required to raise ...
November 01, 2020 at 21:30
In: Platonism  — view comment
The reason to drop the quantifier is because it instills false belief. Also, it seems to disprove what is true. Isn't anything 'beyondly' immortal? Is...
November 01, 2020 at 17:00
Who's talking about responsibility? I thought the issue was access or prohibition. Under what circumstances are males denied liberty or required to sa...
November 01, 2020 at 16:52
For a few seconds we can only be completely selfish, perhaps the most selfish possible. But that only means the rest of the time is an opportunity to ...
November 01, 2020 at 13:04
In: Platonism  — view comment
Could'a fooled me! Damascious seems to have eluded my notice, though I'm sure I've come across something of him somewhere, I make a pretty thorough ov...
October 30, 2020 at 12:46
In: Platonism  — view comment
Aristotle illustrates your point by saying: Socrates is a man All men are Mortal Therefore: Socrates is mortal. I assume you subscribe to this. But, e...
October 29, 2020 at 11:19
In: Platonism  — view comment
Spoken like Zeno, Parmenides' shill. Both your comments are question begging. The law of contradiction does not prove itself. I've said over and over,...
October 28, 2020 at 19:03
Maybe take a peek at Satanism and Witchcraft, by Jules Michelet.
October 24, 2020 at 21:01
Does the First Amendment protect religious liberty, or religious authority? Is it really a proper function of government to support the imposition of ...
October 24, 2020 at 20:52
In: Platonism  — view comment
An end of metaphysics? Don't think so! If Kant weren't full of holes Hegel would not have had anything to add. The epistemic and the formal are incohe...
October 24, 2020 at 18:24
In: Platonism  — view comment
Pato's semantics appears in the Craytalus. There he compares onomatopeoia to etymology as sources of significations of terms. As usual, of course, the...
October 24, 2020 at 12:27
In: Platonism  — view comment
Free will again! Freedom is not a possession, it is a willing dispossession. The transformation of terms is not something we try to impose on each oth...
October 23, 2020 at 12:55
In: Platonism  — view comment
First of all, in Plato's time the engine of language was the abstract character of gods and heroes. Not that these were real entities active in the wo...
October 22, 2020 at 11:57
In: Platonism  — view comment
Yes, it is possible convince yourself it is possible to create what you call a "determinate" language, but it is demonstrably false to suppose that is...
October 21, 2020 at 17:33
In: Platonism  — view comment
I'm warming to the contrast between autonomic and autonomous systems. The autonomic does not respond to real changes, and if reality is rigor interrup...
October 20, 2020 at 12:53
In: Platonism  — view comment
Who says? I mean, which character, and where does Socrates take the discussion from there? In Phaedo, Socrates is spending his final hour doing what h...
October 19, 2020 at 18:31
In: Platonism  — view comment
Where in Plato does he say this? Where does he claim the telos as the source of or navigator to truth? What is purpose? Propositum. Enduring time pros...
October 18, 2020 at 21:25
In: Platonism  — view comment
How dense can we be? Language is not in isolation. A speaker is never alone in the act of it. Language is as much listening as speaking. It is not abo...
October 17, 2020 at 20:28
In: Platonism  — view comment
Subatomic particles are not semantic. Quantum values are not numerical. But there is no ambiguity to them either. They are quite decisively neither/no...
October 16, 2020 at 21:42